World Tournament
The 'World Tournament, '''also known informally as the '''Silver Cup '''due to the trophy's colour, is a international association football tournament. It is contested by the 32 best teams that fail to qualify for the World Cup. The current and first Silver Cup is being hosted jointly by Lovia and Canada. Due to the refusal of Sweden, Austria and Finland to take part in what they saw as an amateur competition they were replaced by special guest members Scotland, Belgium and San Marino. The tournament is run by the Association for Lovian and International Football (ALIF), based in Noble City. Although run by a Lovian organisation and hosted by Lovia, the tournament is not otherwise connected to Lovia, although there are claims of bias from other countries when teams were selected. Hosting There were a number of candidates for hosting the tournament: Controversy After some debate, the ALIF ruled that the Scandinavian countries' application was invalid as they decided three countries could not host the Tournament together. Although annoyed by this seemingly arbitrary rule, the Scandinavian countries complied and Norway dropped out. However, Sweden and Finland failed to win, despite their superior facilities, and this led to an angry accusation of bias and Sweden and Finland refused to take part in the competition. Qualification The qualifying teams were those who failed by a narrow margin in the World Cup qualifiers, in addition to three additional 'guest teams'. There were no separate qualifiers. The number of teams qualifying from each continent is the same as in the World Cup, i.e.: * Europe: 13 teams ** Bosnia ** Russia ** Ukraine ** Norway ** Ireland ** Latvia ** Czech Republic ** Turkey ** Croatia ** Bulgaria ** Sweden* ** Finland* ** Austria* * ''later replaced by San Marino, Scotland, and Belgium * Asia: 5 teams ** Bahrain ** Qatar ** Saudi Arabia ** Iran ** Uzbekistan (qualified after winning a playoff against New Caledonia 3-1) * Africa ** Benin ** Burkina Faso ** Gabon ** Tunisia ** Egypt * North and Central America ** Costa Rica ** El Salvador ** Trinidad and Tobago * South America ** Ecuador ** Colombia ** Venezuala ** Bolivia * Australasia ** None (New Caledonia failed to qualify after losing a playoff with Uzbekistan.) Lovia and Canada as hosts automatically take part and did not need to qualify. Seeding To seed the teams into groups they were first divided into four pots as below: To form the groups one team will be randomly picked from each pot to form eight groups. This ceremony was performed on the 10th of June by sponsor of the tournament Philip Bradly-Lashawn and Lovian team captain INSERT NAME at the ALIF office in Noble City. Although selection was random, Lovia's group was automatically Group 1 and Canada's was automatically Group 8. This was to avoid the hosts meeting too soon Matches Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Trophy The trophy is an exact replica of the World Cup trophy, but is made from silver, not gold. It was sculpted by the original sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, now aged 89, with the aid of Lovian sculptor David Blair.